flutiebear:

I apologize for the very “Law and Order” nature of this courtroom scene, but I  had very little time to research how court martial proceedings work this morning, so maybe I kinda sorta pulled a Varric and took a few little liberties for the sake of plot. I REGRET NOTHING.

Previous drabble: In the Belly of the Gallows

***

Meredith leans over the podium. Her armor catches the slant of a sunbeam, and the silverite becomes as bright as a sunburst; the long lines of her face turn bronze, like the overseer statues in the Gallows courtyard.

“Do you have anything to add to your defense, Knight-Templar Hawke, that might convince the court to offer leniency?”

Her eyes beg him to answer. She grips the edge of the podium, her knuckles rigid and white.

“I am sorry,” Carver says evenly, “that I didn’t kill the bastard when I had the chance.”

Meredith leans back. The light in her eyes is gone now, though her hands have not relaxed. She purses her lips into a tight, bare line.

“Then the court has no choice but to levy the following sentence,” she declares. She lifts a piece of paper and reads, her voice distant and cold, as if she were giving an account of the city’s tax records and not the measure of a guilty man’s life.

Read More

Oh jesus.

Flutes, your deftness with the stranglehold of familial love and hate and obligation is so goddamn impressive.